This invention relates to personal vehicles for assisting medical and surgical patients to become ambulatory sooner than would otherwise be feasible.
At present there is a need in hospital nursing home and other medical and physical care facilities for a vehicle which will assist provisionally ambulatory patients in getting about from place to place within the facility.
In the past such vehicles have been confined to the traditional wheel chair, wheel stretchers and beds and non-wheeled walkers. As useful as they are they do not meet the needs of the person who needs to get about to a limited extent by himself and who needs both to support himself and to conserve his energy in doing so.
Examples of patients having such needs are patients who are recovering from an operation or the effects of disease and who are consequently weakened but otherwise mechanically intact, elderly patients in rest homes who have a need to move about while conserving energy, patients with leg injuries either to one or both legs, as for example single amputees and persons having a leg in a cast. Another aspect of the need exists for people who want to become active at an early date after surgery and enjoy the benefits of mild exercise.
The need is also felt by persons confined at home who are subject to weaknesses and disabilities.